2019 JAMB CUT-OFF MARK: Nigeria's Mockery Of Quality Education

Recently, the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) wey be the join body wey dey concerned with the admission of students into tertiary institutions brought up the university admission cut-off mark to 160 out of the total 400 marks. This amounts to 40% which is within the range of F9 or Fail in a fair grading system. So if a secondary school graduate can 'fail' UTME and go on to end up in a university, why on earth will he study hard to pass out in flying colors? It shows that the entire educational system has failed! They claim that the cut-off mark is lowered to enable more students pass, but we all know that at the moment, there are not enough universities to accommodate all those that have passed with good grades, so instead of reducing it, why on earth are they trying to increase their population by adding failures to them?? Must everyone, especially the dull ones, go to a university? Why do vocational training programmes exist? It is clear that the managers of our education sector have only one objective. It's like Sgt. Maj. Blane in The Unit (S2) said: "We're here to make you fail!" 

For starters, the education curriculum is faulty and hugely outdated, the schools are dilapidated, the teachers themselves are mentally, psychologically, academically and financially dilapidated! The exam fees are high and we lead the world in poverty! After all these, the government seeing that there are many students who have passed the UTME exams and still have not gotten admission, decided to set up the Foundation Programme, not for those that passed but for those that failed! After that, they went on to reduce the cut-off marks so that more failures would stand a chance of getting admission ahead of those that passed since by the time it gets to them, the universities would already be full with failures and would no longer be accepting students! Isn't this heartless and wicked, not only to the brilliant students, but also to the Nigerian nation at large? Why are they discouraging the youths from passing exams and thereby blocking the nation's progress??? When I was younger, failing exams was something every student dreaded and every parent hated, but nowadays, it's a norm! Failing exams is very normal not only for students, but also for their parents and the rest of the society! Some years ago, I heard a student boasting that he had failed WAEC four times. He wasn't feeling bad about it, instead he was happy and smiling and his chest was puffed with pride! Oh Nigeria, where are we headed??